Francois Mitterrand's son convicted in Angola arms smuggling case

The son of Francois Mitterrand, the late French president, and a former minister were convicted by a French court of crimes related to illegal arms sales to Angola during its civil war.

6:42PM GMT 27 Oct 2009

The trial centred on $790 million in arms sales to Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos' MPLA between 1993 and 1998, when it was fighting Unita rebels led by Jonas Savimbi.

In the dock in a Paris court were 42 people accused of selling weapons to Angola in defiance of a UN arms embargo, or of taking payments from the arms dealers and using their influence to facilitate the sales.

The two main protagonists were Pierre Falcone, a French businessman and Arkady Gaydamak, a Russian-Israeli businessman. Both were convicted of illegal arms deals, tax fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and other crimes.

Both were sentenced to six years in prison and Falcone was arrested as soon as the judge finished reading out the sentences - a process that took close to two hours due to the number of people involved. Gaydamak is on the run.

Charles Pasqua, the former interior minister, was ordered jailed for a year, plus two more years suspended, and fined €100,000 (£90,000). He was not in court and lawyers said he intends to appeal.

Mr Pasqua, now a senator in the French parliament, was a political mentor of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, who was an advisor on Africa to his father, was given a two-year suspended sentence and a €375,000 fine for receiving embezzled funds from the illegal arms sales to Angola. He accepted millions of euros in "consultant fees" on the arms deals between 1993 and 1998, the trial dubbed "Angolagate" heard.

The trial shone a light into a murky world of secret payments made in cash and discreet deals linking Parisian high society with one of Africa's longest-running wars.

It was also awkward for the French government, which is keen to cultivate ties with Angola, a trading partner of growing importance. Some 70 French firms are established in Angola, including oil giant Total, which is the second-biggest crude oil producer in the country after Chevron.